Rasharkin singer on BBC’s ‘Burns an’ Mair’

Rasharkin singer/songwriter Andy Calderwood performs during recording for Burns an' Mair to be shown on BBC Two Northern Ireland, Thursday 25 January at 9pm. The programme, made by Barking Films, is part of BBC Northern Ireland's celebration of the life and work of Robert Burns.

Staff reporter

BBC Northern Ireland continues its week of programmes and content celebrating the life and work of Robert Burns with a one-hour music special recorded at Rosemary Street Presbyterian Church in Belfast - featuring a Rasharkin singer.

Presented by Sylvia Burnside and Mark Wilson, Burns an’ Mair, will be broadcast on BBC Two Northern Ireland at 9pm on Thursday, January 25, the anniversary of the birth of Robert Burns.

Here in Northern Ireland, we are more than familiar with the major poetic works of Robert Burns. Though he has long been heralded as Scotland’s National poet, Burns was primarily a songwriter with an often-overlooked body of work containing upwards of 400 songs. He was a composer and arranger of consummate skill, a fiddle player and a song collector.

This programme, made by Barking Films, celebrates Burns but not in the traditional sense with an ‘Address to a Haggis’ and ‘Auld Lang Syne’, delving instead more deeply into the musical world of Robert Burns, and the writers and performers his work inspired.

Rasharkin-born singer/songwriter Andy Calderwood who performs a special arrangement of ‘A Mans A Man for A’ That’, found a real affinity between Burns’ language and the Ulster-Scots he grew up with in County Antrim.

Burns an’ Mair will be broadcast on Thursday, January 25 on BBC Two Northern Ireland at 9pm.

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